Funny thing here.  My aunt is interested in our family geneology.  She just sent me the following article:

http://www.boulderweekly.com/article-11315-epa-under-pressure-t.html

...in which Larissa Walker, of the Center for Food Safety, is mentioned.  I have never heard of Larissa before today but it turns out that we are related.  We are both descended from the same beekeepers, dating back to the 1870s.   We've had beekeepers in our family continuously since then (or even before then, I'm still looking into it).  This article makes me proud.  I'm a scientist and hobby beekeeper, but I have "bees in the blood", and here is a distant relative who is also a pollinator/honeybee advocate working at a scale that might make a difference to the positive for our buddies, the honeybees.

The insidious effects of the current short-term miracle "wonder-pesticides"...acetylcholine agonists of the neonicotinoid class...are becoming more obvious as we continue to use them.  Sixty years ago, my grandfather's beekeeping business was nearly wiped out by DDT.   (This loss became an e-documented court case, and I will send the link to any interested readers) Back then DDT was the "wonder pesticide".  Was any lesson learned here?  Many on this list say "now is better than then".  I challenge you...if your bees are dying more slowly now than "then", but they still wind up dead....is that better?

Slow deaths are screened by management techniques like splits.  Ask yourself:  If you didn't do splits would you still have bees?

Let's debate this!  I support agriculture (we all need to eat!), yet I know that we, along with plants and insects, evolved in a highly diverse world.  The chemical solutions allowing monoculture are propped up on weak legs that might (will probably) cause catastrophic failure at some point.  I say we need to diversify our crop lands and thereby reduce the use of insecticides, herbicides, and all the 'cides that allow monoculture, as defined by planting the same crop from one horizon to the other.  Note that I am NOT saying "stop all chemical use", but I am saying reduce it.  What do you say?

Christina....who is prepared to be verbally pummeled on this, and in advance says "sorry" to almond growers etc...but also says to those folks...start growing other stuff!  There is money in multiple crops. :)

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